Spelt pancakes

It's saturday morning. You wake up, slowly take your time to wash up and start your day. Then you gingerly come down to the kitchen to get a glass of water. The first thing that greets you is your breakfast. A stack of freshly made pancakes is sitting on the counter top, with that pot of genuine maple syrup that you'd brought home from Canada. The air is saturated with the sweet aroma of cooking. More pancakes are on their way. Perfect timing! Even a second is too long to wait. You flood the pancakes with maple syrup, grab the plate, charge right to your seat, and eat! You know you are loved; and that is as sweet as your pancakes.

The KAF whole grain cook book is incredible. The recipes are so delicious that my husband has started requesting for homemade breakfast. Here is my first pancake experiment, adapted from the KAF cook book's simple spelt pancakes recipe. Oh! Whole spelt pancakes. Simple; light; rich in the flavor of the grain itself! They change my perspective on whole grains from now on. The fineness of the grains is a pleasure in and of itself, not meant to be compared with white flour baked goods.



Recipe: Spelt pancakes (make 6, for 2)

Ingredients:
- 7/8 cup Bob's Red Mill whole spelt flour
- 1 TB KAF all purpose flour
- 1 tp sugar
- 1+3/4 tp baking powder
- 1/4 tp heap of salt
- 3/4 cup + 2 TB 1% milk
- 1 TB melted butter or oil
- 1 tp vanilla

Procedure:
1. Mix spelt flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Mix milk, butter and vanilla in another bowl.
3. Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together and stir until thoroughly hydrated.
4. Allow the batter to sit for 15 minutes.
5. If the mixture is too thin, add all purpose flour to adjust hydration (but the batter is quite tolerant on the whole).
6. Heat a non-stick skillet until hot. Turn heat to mid-low. Apply oil spray. Rub off any excess oil. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan and allow it to spread until the edge starts to firm up. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes. Gently lift the edge to see whether it's ready. When the bottom side is golden, carefully flip with a spatula. Cook the other side for 1-2 minutes.

Results:
9:39am, initial mixture of all the ingredients:

9:42am, batter after 3 minutes:

9:45am, butter lump in the batter when hot melted butter mix with cold milk:

9:49am, thinking that the batter is too thin, I added 1 TB all purpose flour to adjust the thickness (only to find out later that it probably didn't make any difference):

9:53am, final batter:

9:54am, pan heated on high until oil smokes when sprayed onto pan, then the first 3 TBs of batter (Batch 1) is poured onto pan:

9:55am, first pancake stopped spreading within a few seconds:

9:56am, edge of the first pancake:

9:56am, first pancake flipped; ouch! Overcooked!

9:58am, first pancake burnt on both sides:

9:59am, heat lowered to med-low; second batch of batter poured onto pan:

9:59am, Batch 2 stopped spreading:

10:01am, first pancake of Batch 2 flipped:

10:02am, second pancake of Batch 2 flipped:

10:03am, both pancakes in Batch 2 flipped again to check doneness; much better than Batch 1:

10:05am, Batch 3 started:

10:05am, Batch 3 stopped spreading:

10:06am, edge of the pancakes in Batch 3:

10:07am, first pancake in Batch 3 flipped; a little too early:

10:08am, second pancake in Batch 3 being detached, with a little extra effort because bottom isn't done enough:

10:09am, second pancake in Batch 3 flipped:

10:09am, first pancake in Batch 3 flipped again to check doneness:

10:09am, second pancake in Batch 3 flipped again to check doneness:

10:11am, Batch 4 started:

10:13am, Batch 4 flipped:

10:14am, Batch 4 done:

10:14am, pancakes from Batches 2 and 3:

10:14am, pancakes from Batches 1, 3 and 4:

10:15am, interior of the pancake in Batch 4:

10:23am, interior of the burnt pancake in Batch 1:

Observations:
1. The fine unique good taste of the spelt stands out nicely in the pancakes. Even without eggs and any additional ingredients, the pancakes are full of flavor.
2. The first pancake is usually the hardest to control doneness.
3. When the bottom side of a pancake is done, it is golden colored. It only needs a little effort to detach it from the bottom with a spatula (Batch 2). Flipping is easy.
4. If the bottom of the pancake is not quite done yet, then it is harder to detach. The pancake may deform while being detached (see Batch 3).